


Takizawa Teppan

by akanyanen



Category: Arashi (Band), KAT-TUN (Band), Kanjani8 (Band), NewS (Band)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-10-07
Updated: 2009-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-10 03:26:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12290211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akanyanen/pseuds/akanyanen
Summary: If Johnnys was a teppanyaki restaurant. Swearing and antics and many cameos.





	Takizawa Teppan

It's like one large, dysfunctional family. No one knows how everyone survives with only minor cuts and bruises, but somehow,they're always there to open the restaurant the next day. 

Restaurants are unpredictable creatures of habit. The one Uchi works at with his childhood best friend is no different, although at times it seems even more dysfunctional than any other restaurant Uchi has worked at. It's the people.

No matter how good a restaurant's food is, the people involved in the process will make or break the experience. This is why Uchi is sweet and charming to people's faces and then self-medicates after work with a royal bitch fest and some sort of wonderfully mind-numbing drink. 

Sometimes he doesn't even make it past the dinner rush. 

There are plenty of functioning alcoholics in restaurants. Some of them are better workers drunk than when they're sober: Matsujun. 

Uchi worked with him when he was sober one night. Aiba spent an hour emptying the ice and making sure there were no shards of glass left in the trough. 

He shakes his head at the memory. 

Matsujun has been in the business too long; the stress would be ten times worse if he didn't have a few to soothe his nerves.

Uchi can't blame him, really; the lead server position means he has to fix everyone else's mistakes.

 

Tuesday

It's not Monday, but it is Uchi's Monday and he opens the restaurant with Tegoshi. 

"Fuck," Uchi grumbles, checking the schedule one more time to make sure. 

"What?" Hina asks. 

"You know what," Uchi says darkly and then pouts at him for good measure. 

Hina laughs. "Tegoshi called. He'll be here in 15 minutes." 

"Yeah, yeah." Uchi waves him off, clocking in at the POS station and starting to sweep.

Tegoshi has a habit of being on Hawaiian time even though he hasn't been there since he was five and they're in Japan where supposedly punctuality is not optional. 

"Ucchin!" Tegoshi strolls in a good twenty minutes later. "Sorry I'm late!"

The rest of the kitchen staff trickles in slowly, Subaru showing up first, and the sounds of chopping vegetables come from the kitchen. 

"You always do the best sweeping job," Tegoshi says, getting the clean silverware from the kitchen and starting to put it away. 

Uchi doesn't have a problem with Tegoshi outside of work; he likes him, just working with him is extra work for Uchi. 

"Thanks." Uchi pouts at him and Tegoshi laughs.

"You're so cute when you make that face!" 

"Ah, you two are opening?" Ohkura stumbles in, carrying takeout food and throwing down his bag on the bar. 

"You're here before me, Tegoshi!" Kusano exclaims in exaggerated surprise, holding the same plastic takeout bag as Ohkura. 

"I'm getting better, yes?" Tegoshi grins and throws his arm around Kusano's shoulder. 

Uchi puts the finishing touches on the tables and starts counting down the minutes to the end of his shift. 

"Better is relative. 15 minutes late is still late," Sho chides. 

 

"You look like a nerd." Uchi glares at the countertop as he furiously wipes off the remnants of sauce and okonomiyaki bits. 

"Huh?" Nakamaru looks confused over the top his grill. He's shaping one of the okonomiyaki and trying to keep it looking uniform. The batter does its best to ooze out all over the grill. 

"Why don't you program a website, put up all the whores' pictures, and we can run the restaurant like a host club. Fucking male sluts," Uchi growls under his breath, even though he himself is male and more than a little promiscuous, and throws down the napkins before quickly setting the counter and disappearing with the tray of dirty dishes before Nakamaru can get a word in. 

"…I don't get it." Nakamaru looks confused.

"All you need to know is Uchi's crazy," Ryo answers from next to him. Then he shouts, "Pay attention to what you're doing! It's going to burn."

 

"Annoying," Ryo complains, clocking off and stepping to the side so Uchi can do the same.

"I could say the same about you," Uchi snaps back. He tries not to watch when Ryo shrugs out of his chef's coat, the white fabric looking even brighter against the tan he acquired on his recent trip to Hawaii. His first vacation ever. 

Ryo's sweaty from working all night behind the grill. Uchi is too, but to a lesser extent and it's mostly hidden underneath his black uniform. 

Ryo scoffs.

Uchi vaguely wonders if his black shirt stands out against his pale skin. He probably looks a little bit sickly. It makes him wish he had time to fly off to lounge on the beach in the warm sun.

 

"What are you doing this Thursday?" Matsujun asks, coming up behind Uchi and scaring the shit out of him.

"Uh. Not sure yet?" Uchi says tentatively. He highly doubts Matsujun is asking him out on a date. Ryo is busy folding up his clothes. Matsujun throws an arm around Uchi's shoulder and walks him over to the bar. 

"If you don't cover my shift I'm going to end up killing someone, possibly with their own steak cutting knife." Matsujun has that look in his eye. 

It says pass me a shot. Good thing they're close to the bar. 

Ohkura must have read his mind because suddenly there are two shots of tequila in front of him. 

"Sorry, I can't."

Uchi surrenders them both to Matsujun. It's a peace offering of sorts.

"Kill one of the loud ones," Uchi says dramatically and clinks glasses with Matsujun, who is supposed to be on shift but no one cares.

"You do realize that you're one of the loud ones?" Matsujun says without real malice and grins before disappearing off to tend to a table. He looks a little happier and Uchi thinks he'll bring Ohkura cookies next time. 

There's no way he's giving up a rare week where he has two days off in a row. 

 

Friday

The only good thing about Fridays is that Uchi opens, which means he gets off before all the other waiters. 

"Takki's here too," Ryo comments. "He normally isn't on Fridays." 

"We'll be doing most of the work tonight." Nino brushes past him and refills the container of green onions with the ones Subaru was chopping in the back. 

"…huh?" Ryo asks, wiping down the grills and putting out the sauce bottles. 

"Tsubasa is in the office tonight," Nino replies. 

"Ahh." Ryo nods. 

"Nakamaru! Meat, now," Nino calls out when he sees that his minions didn't restock last night. Junno forgot; he was probably too busy going over his new material with Kawai. 

Yoko jokes, "I didn't think you'd be that forward with your sexual harassment, Nino."

"Only when it's Ohno or when you leave your ass unguarded," Kame comments, only a little bit of annoyance sneaking into his tone. 

The kitchen guys, for some unknown reason, like to grab Kame's ass. Uchi imagines it has something to do with the way he squeaks. He's guilty of it too, but Kame gets him back. 

**

 

"Whose taste better?" Shige demands, and Koyama looks torn.

"Kato, did you just ask him whose balls taste better?" Ryo asks incredulously.

Matsujun's scowl might have just disappeared and turned into one of those scary grins, not unlike the kind of expression a lion gets before it goes after a wounded gazelle. 

Shige flusters. "The takoyaki." 

"You have to answer now, Koyama-kun. Do you prefer Shige's balls or Goseki's?" Nino asks mock innocently. 

"Table 40," Shige mutters, quickly passing Koyama the plate so he can run the food.

 

"What's employee meal tonight?" Uchi asks. 

"Sausage. We all know it's your favorite," Ryo says. 

"I wonder who's the biggest sausage fan here," Nino says. Matsujun flips him off from the across the room where he's chatting with Aiba at the bar. 

"He's not human," Kame says in awe. He's standing at the end of the counter, waiting while Nino sprinkles a bit of salt over the fried rice: the finishing touch. 

"I bet you like big, fat, juicy sausage too." Nino winks. 

"Too bad you don't have any to offer," Uchi says and then runs.

 

Uchi enters cheerfully. He notices he's doing most of the food running from the kitchen side; it probably has something to do with the Yoko and Subaru kitchen combination. Hina has a say in the schedule making, so Uchi wonders why it happens like this. Damage control is not only meant for after an accident; prevention is the key.

"Aww, Yassan hasn't been in all night," Subaru complains when Uchi invades.

"You don't love me," Uchi comments sadly. "After all the porn reading incidents I've not told Sho about."

"Only because you brought half of it here," Ryo comments as he comes back to grab the prepared plate of vegetables Nakamaru had sitting on the table. He disappears faster than he came in. 

Uchi would grumble, but he's too busy trying to remember what he was supposed to be doing. Ah! Salad, that's right.

"He's avoiding us?" Yoko asks dramatically. 

"He has a full section," Uchi answers, trying to grab the salads as fast as he can so he can get back out on the floor. 

Nakamaru's face looks relieved. He's been witness to one too many of Subaru's displays of affection for Yasu. Uchi is sure the Asahi they think they have hidden behind the onions and the container of cabbage encourages it. 

It's quicker this way. Yasu is faster than Uchi out on the floor and generally faster than him in everything except dodge-the-Subaru. Uchi doesn't think he tries all that hard to dodge in the first place.

 

Two more hours and then freedom. Uchi stares at the clock and wills time to go faster. 

"Two more drafts," Uchi drones out. It's that time of night. 

"Got it," Aiba responds, grabbing chilled glasses and filling them from the tap. Uchi lingers at the bar. It isn't busy anymore. Their rush ended a little bit ago. Now it'll be stragglers walking in. At least he won't be here for the people that come in 2 minutes before they're supposed to close. 

"Two hours left," Kitayama says optimistically, despite the large collection of dirty glasses in front of him on the countertop. 

 

Saturday

"The balls should not be lumpy, Osakan imposter," Ryo barks as he sees Shige plating the takoyaki. They really aren't that bad, just not as perfectly round as he usually makes them. 

"Ryo-chan prefers fondling smooth balls, Shige-chan. Don't worry, though. Get him drunk and he'll touch anything." Yamapi grins, winking at him, and he barely dodges Ryo's incoming elbow. 

"It's true. I'll send you a picture of his ex-girlfriend," Kusano chimes in as he walks past them with a full tray of dishes. 

"Why do I need a picture of Uchi when he's right there?" Shige asks mock innocently. He isn't able to dodge Ryo's foot. 

"I have better taste than that and you assholes know it," Uchi scoffs, grabbing the plate of takoyaki from Shige. "

If the customers say anything about their language, Uchi hasn't heard it. When people go out to eat, they are in their own little world anyway. Any server can attest to the awkward moment when you've politely asked a customer a question and they proceed to ignore you for five minutes and then get indignant and angry when you don't respond instantaneously when they snap or yell at you. 

"I love my job, I love my job," Uchi mutters to himself after he drops the steaming takoyaki off at a table, careful to warn people that the inside is hot (only to be vaguely amused at the one idiot who ignores him and shoves the entire thing in his mouth and starts to tear up almost immediately), and heads into the kitchen to grab his salad for another table. 

He'll get the man a glass of water on his way back. 

 

"I'm so excited!" Uchi stares at the teppan Yamapi is working over; tonight's employee meal is going to be awesome. 

"I have that affect on people," Yamapi jokes and Ryo chokes on his scoff next to him.

"More like on teenage girls," Kame says, resetting the teppan counter. 

Uchi laughs. Yamapi shrugs. 

 

"Order!" Uchi shouts. 

"Call," Jin drawls back, in the middle of mixing a drink while Ohkura pours draft beers for Kame's table. 

"Highball, cola two, draft." Uchi doesn't really care if he gets the order right. Jin will call him a moron on principle, but he still makes his drinks.

"You coming out tonight or are you going to be a pussy again?" Jin asks him.

"I had class the next day!" Uchi whines.

"No lame excuses," Taipi adds, pouring ice into Jin's trough. Uchi once thought he'd like to bartend, except that memorizing all the different drinks (and their worse names) seemed like a huge pain in the ass. 

Jin's specialty is the drinks that have dirty names. A few Saturday nights ago, he offered Kame 'Sweet Tight Pussy,' and when he didn't look amused replaced it with an offer of 'Anal Sex'. 

Aiba likes to experiment with his own creations (Matsujun and Nino are usually his test subjects) and Ohkura is surprisingly good at making the fruity cocktails. Uchi likes them the best. 

"Make me a drink?" Uchi asks hopefully. 

Jin grins. Uchi's seen that look before. It happens all the time when he's paired up with Ryo and Pi and that really tall half-foreign guy. Uchi's a little surprised he didn't come in tonight. 

"Here." Jin sets the glass down next to the beer keg behind the counter. 

Uchi crouches behind the bar, downing some of the drink. 

"What is it?" Uchi asks. It doesn't taste too bad, but he can definitely taste the vodka.

"It's called a lush," Jin answers. "Like you."

Ohkura laughs. "Fitting."

"Fuck you," Uchi says, but he can't exactly deny it 

"You didn't even finish the drink! You can't offer that soon," Kusano exclaims, shaking his head. 

 

Sunday

 

"Who made the schedule?" Ueda demands, storming out of the kitchen and looking livid. Ohkura shrugs, wiping wine glasses and making sure there isn't any lipstick left on the rim. (He hates lipstick on women, a pain in the ass to clean off and it feels gross on his skin.)

"Wasn't it Takki?" Massu asks, sweeping underneath the tables. The patio doors are open and letting the spring air in. 

Ueda curses and storms back into his kitchen. 

"Shit, is he on his rag again?" Ryo grumbles, coming in with his hungover face on and his baseball cap down low. 

"Junno and Kawai are working in the back with him today," Goseki comments as he walks in, a few minutes late, and heads directly to the line to start setting up. 

This isn't an unusual sight for Ohkura. Everyone bitches about each other, especially Ueda since it's "his kitchen" and he's the one responsible for all the prep work and monitoring salads and deserts as they're sent out. 

He needs to have attitude.

Ohkura supposes he wouldn't be Ueda without it anyway. 

"What happened to you last night?" Ohkura asks when Ryo comes back behind the bar and digs through their "box of random shit". 

"…I'll let you know when I remember." Ryo winces. He leans against the counter and pops the lid on Matsujun's aspirin. 

Ohkura wordlessly hands him a glass of water.

"Any vodka in this?" Ryo asks hopefully. 

Ohkura laughs. "I'm sure you still have some left in your system. You and Uchi were worse than usual last night."

"Who works the floor tonight?" Ryo pops the pill and drinks. 

"Not Uchi," Ohkura tells him the important part. He can't quite remember what happened. 

"Yay, I'll have a small miniscule shot at quiet," Ryo comments, gulping down the water.

Ohkura shakes his head. He agrees, though.

"What happened last night?" Ohkura ventures to ask. There is something going on with the two of them.

"Nothing besides Uchi being annoying like he always is," Ryo complains. Truth be told, he can't quite remember; he just knows he went home alone but they might have kissed. 

 

**

 

Working behind the bar, Ohkura gets to see a lot of stuff go down. Of course when he gets slammed, it's insanity; he only has one person to help him out and that's just with dishes and refilling ice. The majority of the time, he's able to see the teppan. Tonight is a pretty good line-up: Nino, Pi, Ryo and Maruyama. They aren't likely to fight, but they are likely to be obnoxious. It's a trade off. 

"Hey!" Uchi walks in the side door. 

"Hiro-chan!" Yasu comes over for a hug even though they just worked together last night. 

"Aren't you off today?" Ohkura asks.

"Yeah," Uchi says, taking a seat at the bar. 

"What are you doing here?" Ryo asks, handing a clear bottle to Ohkura. 

Uchi shrugs. "Just picking up something from Sho." 

"Oh." Ryo shifts uncomfortably. 

"Here." Ohkura hands him back the bottle, filled with sake, and Ryo retreats to the teppan. 

 

Monday

Like many other restaurants in the area, Takizawa Teppan is closed on Mondays. What used to function as a training day now allows for the restaurant to be completely cleaned, or, well, in theory they're supposed to clean, but most weeks it's an excuse for everyone to get together and get completely shit-faced at a company BBQ. 

"Bonding" is what Takki calls it. Uchi thinks it's more like an excuse to get wasted in some park and occasionally fight out their differences, all while eating lots of good food. 

It's pretty awesome, basically. 

"First cherry blossom viewing of the season!" Takki announces cheerfully. This is punctuated by the unloading of cases of beer and bottles of sake. 

Blankets are spread out underneath one of the larger cherry trees. The blossoms in full bloom. 

Ohno is napping on one of the blankets already while Shige and Maruyama are off taking pictures. Uchi stretches out himself. He already helped Ohkura and Jin set up the iceboxes with beer. The weather is really nice. 

He can hear Goseki, Taipi and Kitayama setting up the table. There's more goofing around going on than setting up. 

"Hey!" 

Someone's foot jabs itself into his side and he manages a glare. 

"Get off your lazy ass and help," Ryo complains, grabbing Uchi's hand and "helping" him up.

"I don't wanna," Uchi whines, laying limp and not responding. 

"Come on," Ryo grunts, and keeps pulling harder. There's a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth so he can't be that annoyed. 

Uchi uses his leg and simultaneously pulls Ryo off balance and he lands half on Uchi, half off. 

"Ow," Uchi groans. His spleen getting kneed was not fun. 

"Idiot," Ryo grumbles, trying to push himself up and failing when Uchi pulls him back down.

"You could rest," Uchi suggests. 

"Let me go," Ryo warns, starting to squirm. 

Uchi laughs. 

There are catcalls from half of the kitchen staff and Ryo musters the indignation to yell at them to shut up. Uchi keeps laughing, eventually relinquishing his hold on Ryo. 

"You're fired." Ryo pouts. 

"You wish." Uchi sticks his tongue out. 

Ryo rolls his eyes and heads back over to the grill to help finish cooking. Uchi stays sprawled out for a few more minutes before he heads over to help unpack some of the side dishes and desserts. 

Everything comes together and after a toast with Takki, they pile food onto their plates and take a moment to relax with each other. There isn't an opportunity to do that when they're on shift.

Uchi sits a little too close to Ryo, but Ryo doesn't say anything, even when Uchi steals a strip of steak off his plate. 

 

Ohkura pats Uchi on the back. "Take care of him." 

"He has thing for his ears," Nino advises with a large, almost terrifying grin. Uchi doesn't want to know how he knows that.

"…thanks," Uchi says, awkwardly trying to balance Ryo, who is leaning heavily on him, his arm around his waist and finger tips resting on his stomach. 

Ryo doesn't normally get this shitfaced. It's usually Uchi who has to be carted home. 

"Come on, Ryo-chan." Uchi figures they can just take a taxicab back to his apartment; it isn't that far. 

"'kay," Ryo slurs. He tries to stand upright and is almost successful until he stumbles. He clings closer to Uchi. Uchi doesn't really mind. He wonders what that means. 

"Let's go to my place," Ryo says. The words are garbled but not that hard to understand. 

"You're sober enough to know I'm not a slutty girl, right?" Uchi jokes. 

"But you're still a slutty Uchi," Ryo mumbles back. 

"Asshole." Uchi laughs. "I should just leave you here." 

"But you won't," Ryo says matter-of-factly. Uchi looks at him and Ryo grins. He doesn't know what kind of promise there is in that look, but maybe he'll find out.


End file.
